Paul Lambert insists he is more pleased that Villa striker Christian Benteke is getting into goalscoring positions than worried about him not finding the net

Christian Benteke: In fine form for country, but struggling with Villa goals

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Fresh from wasting opportunities against West Brom and Tottenham and then scoring twice for Belgium, Benteke spurned an opportunity to earn the claret and blues a point at Fulham yesterday.

Benteke, who started on the bench with Darren Bent returning to the starting line up, fired wide from Charles N’Zogbia’s cross late on after coming on as a substitute.

Asked if he is encouraged by the runs the 21-year-old targetman is making to get on the end of chances, Lambert replied: “Yes, he’s a handful there’s no doubt, he changes the dynamics of the team at times. He’s got years to go in his career, this is only the start of it.

“From where I was standing I don’t know how far away it was. It was a chance, but he’ll be a big player for us. He’s in one hell of a national side at the minute, he’ll keep learning and he’ll be fine.”

Lambert refused to blame Benteke or the defenders who allowed Chris Baird to squeeze in the Cottagers’ 84th minute winner from a corner.

“It was disappointing to lose that goal from a setpiece when we coped really well throughout the game,” said the Villa manager.

“But at this level if you concede a setpiece you’ve got to make sure you defend it properly. I won’t have a blame culture, as a team we never dealt with it and we got hurt by that.

“But some of the football we played was very good. There are positives to take out of it, like coming here and giving a good account of themselves. But we move onto the next one.”

Lambert admits he has “mixed emotions” about Villa’s start to the season after five defeats, two draws and one victory from their first eight Premier League matches.

“It’s probably mixed emotions for me,” he added. “I thought we played well at Tottenham, we played well at Newcastle, the only game I’ve been really disappointed about is Everton who deserved to beat us.

“But there’s a lot of good things and it’s up to us to try and turn the good things into wins. That’s the nature of the game.”